Pride of Place - Anglo Saxon Kingdom's Exhibition


It was great to meet an old Norfolk friend, in pride of place, welcoming visitors to the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms Exhibition at  the British Library!  He represents the old East Anglia. East Anglia before Christian missionaries began the conversion in the 7th C.

Made of clay, the model of Spong Hill Man forms the stopper of a cremation urn ' Looking at him in a new light, he seemed less like one of the three monkeys, perhaps somewhere between Rodin's Thinker and Edvard Munch's The Scream, as he contemplates the mysteries of life and death.  For such as him St.Felix established a church close to Spong Hill at North Elmham. A church that was to become the centre of the diocese until it transferred to Norwich in 11th C. 


Another Norfolk treasure  - the  (the newly acquired)  Whinfarthing Pendant  - was displayed nearby.



It dates from a time when the East Anglian elite was beginning to turn towards Christianity. Like St.Felix, who accompanied King Sigeberht of East Anglia from exile on the continent, to be the first Bishop of East Anglia  in 633 CE or thereabouts,  was a Burgandian. The gold coins that formed part of the array were  also Merovingian, minted in the reign of Sigeberht III, who became King of Austrasia in 633 C.E.. Some have supposed that Sigeberht was family name and the two royal namesakes were related.

That might be contested but there is a wealth of evidence that there continued to be close links between Norfolk and Francia.  St.Boltolf received his monastic formation at Faramoutiers, where two daughters of King Anna,  who succeeded Sigeberht,  became abbess. St. Bathild, a queen and wife of Clovis II was an East Anglian noble woman who founded Chelles Abbey, where Hereswith the sister of the famous Hilda of Whitby and widow of an East Anglian lord, was also a nun. St.Fursey who shared in the evangelisation of East Anglia with Felix, worked from a base in Burgh Castle and went on to establish a  monastery close to Chelles Abbey.

These Norfolk treasurers are on show at the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms Exhibition until 19th February after which they return to their home in Norwich's Castle Museum. The Norfolk Saints' Way from Burgh Castle to Norwich celebrates S.S. Felix and Fursey.

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